BURLINGTON >> School districts have until Tuesday to tell the Connecticut Department of Education how they plan on evaluating their teachers. But since the department has not finalized the details of their methodology, the Regional School District 10 Board of Education refused to sign on with the state for the time being.

The Region 10 Board of Education voted unanimously to send the Department of Education their election to use a district-proposed alternative to the System for Educator Evaluation and Development at their Monday night meeting. The reasoning, according to district superintendent Alan Beitman, was that the state has not presented a fully-formed version of SEED, and the initial findings are less than encouraging.

"Not once is 'State Model (SEED)' checked," said Beitman of the form, "and that's because you can't buy a pig in a poke."

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Designed with the findings of a Gates Foundation study in mind, SEED attempts to provide quantifiable scores for teachers. The program is mostly mandatory, having been enacted in educational reform, but will not take effect across the state until 2013-14. 10 school systems have signed on for a pilot program in the 2012-13 school year, including Litchfield Public Schools and Regional School District 6, but even though the districts are participating in the program, the final details have not been hammered out by the state.

"There are major revisions coming," said Beitman.

However, Beitman said that he would not rule out SEED entirely. Rather, since the details of the implementation have yet to be finalized -- Beitman said that the Department of Education has not even decided if it will phase in the assessment method gradually, nor has it set a timeline for such a process -- he believed it was best to not commit prematurely. Districts have until April 15 to officially sign on to their choice, and the Jan. 15 deadline was just for informational purposes.

"My purpose tonight is to share with you that we are taking a wait-and-see attitude," said Beitman.

School districts can choose to participate in SEED, an in-house alternative or a hybrid model. The guidelines for SEED state that securing approval for an in-house alternative method will be difficult, as the Connecticut Department of Education has to approve of the methodology. But that option remains on the desks of school administrators.

"The reason it's before you today is the Board of Education approves the evaluation processes," said Beitman.

Beitman said he believed that Region 10 would ultimately commit to SEED, but wanted to see how the final details looked first. The districts participating in the pilot program include Litchfield, Region 6, Bethany, Branford, Bridgeport, the Capitol Region Education Council, Norwalk, Waterford, Windham, Windsor and a consortium of Columbia, Eastford, Franklin and Sterling. Those districts, though, are reportedly not receiving the needed support, according to Beitman, who believed the district should see the final proposal before making a commitment.

"This board has never adopted an evaluation plan it has not seen," said Beitman.